Reply to the Article inLeipziger Volkszeitung[2]

Published:Leipziger VolkszeitungNo. 165, for July 21, 1914.

      Translated from the German.

      Signed: Editors ofPravda.

      Published according to the text inLeipziger Volkszeitung.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1972,

      Moscow,Volume 20,

      pages558-560.Translated:Bernard Isaacs and The Late Joe FinebergTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

LeipzigerVolkszeitung, issue No. 157 for July 11,
1914, published an article over the signature of Z. L. entitled “On the
Question of Unity in Russia”. The writer’s lack of objectivity compels us
to draw the attention of the German comrades to certain facts. For the sake
of graphic illustration, we quote the following table which was published
inPravda.[1]

1.Wegave the exact dates for which these figures were calculated (from
January 1 to May 13, 1914). The liquidators gave no dates. Would it be
honest, in such a case, to compare facts that are incomparable and
unauthentic?

2.Theliquidators themselves stated and published in the press (Nasha
Rabochaya GazetaNo. 34) thatalltheir groups, i. e., not
the workers’ groups alone, totalled 948. Our statistics, on the other hand,
specified that the figures 2,873 and 671 referred to workers’ groupsalone. The total number of groupsis givenin our table,
and that numberdoes not coincidewith the number of workers’
groups. Is it honest to pass this over in silence?

3.Ournewspaper reported that we gave the contributions made by the workers’
groups for both newspapers and that we had no information about recurrent
contributions by the same groups. The information was the same for both
news papers. It is absolutely incomprehensible how any honest critic could
discover an “error” here!

4.Wequotedparallelfigures, that is, figures covering the same
period for both newspapers, and the information for both papers was
tabulatedby the same method.

Theliquidators quoted no parallel figures at all, thus violating the
most elementary and well-known rules of statistical work. Anyone who is
interested in this question can easily get both newspapers and verify our
information.

Weare sure that no open-minded person can call the methods used by the
“critic” Z. L. honest.

[1]Seepp. 364–65 of this volume.—Ed.

[2]LeipzigerVolkszeitung—a German Social-Democratic daily,
published from 1894 to 1933. Until World War I it was the organ of the
Left-wing German Social-Democrats. For a number of years it was edited by
F. Mehring. Among contributors to the paper were Rosa Luxemburg, and
J. Marchlewski.

Lenin’sarticle was published in the newspaper under the editorial
heading: “An objection. Letters to the Editors”.